Psy Ants – Bit Tongue Prik (LP)

Psy Ants released this LP a couple of weeks ago and then disbanded, so this is the only record they’ll ever have, and you’ll probably never see them play live again. Consisting members of Per Purpose, Knee Chin and Cured Pink, the Brisbane trio formed around the duo of Aiden Hilcher and Mitchel Perkins, and eventually recruited Glen Schenau on guitar. They played the type of noise rock that sounds life-changing after about four (maybe five) longnecks.

The record plays out like a 20-minute rush of ugly texture: flaked with rust and bluntly serrated at the edges. Mitchel Perkins yells/sings like he was dropped as an infant, and the ensemble itself is unusually technical for a group like this, changing tempo and tack several times within the space of a two minute tune. ‘Belts & Ties’ is an exception: a short and leery chant that approaches something almost frightening in its nastiness. Elsewhere, foreign elements like chimes (?) make ‘Toska’ a little bit weirder than your run-of-the-mill “angular” noise rock tune.

Overall, it’s true reprobate filth. If someone played this record to you without saying what it is, you’d probably guess it was made in Brisbane. Bit Tongue Prik consists eight songs, and each is a mess of feedback and yelling. You could slot these guys on a bill with Slug Guts, early Per Purpose and nowadays Sewers, and you’d have a very… thematically consistent show indeed. That’s where I imagine this group would shine – playing to a room of fellow imbeciles. This is a serviceable enough record, very good for what it is, but all three members are doing more remarkable stuff now.